| 1. Linguistic Exegesis The verse opens with the narrative formula vayedabber {וַיְדַבֵּר | wa-ye-ḏā-ber} ‘and he spoke’, where the prefixed vav marks continuity and the Piel stem intensifies the utterance. The subject Yahweh {יְהוָה | Yə-hō-wāh} ‘LORD’ asserts divine authority. The prepositional phrase el-Mosheh {אֶל־מֹשֶׁה | ʾel-mō-šē} ‘to Moses’ indicates the recipient, with el functioning as a dative marker. The infinitive construct lemor {לֵּאמֹר | lē-mōr} ‘saying’ introduces the direct quotation, a fixed syntactic pattern framing divine commands. This sequence—verb, subject, indirect object, infinitive—emphasizes the act of speaking by the LORD before revealing the content. |